Covenant Companionhttp://covenantcompanion.com
Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:27:18 +0000en-UShourly1Cameroon Violence Threatens Covenant Mission Workhttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/14/cameroon-violence-threatens-covenant-mission-work/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/14/cameroon-violence-threatens-covenant-mission-work/#respondTue, 14 Aug 2018 21:27:18 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40149Due to the spread of horrific violence and the near outbreak of civil war here, Covenant missionaries who were working in the northwest section of the country have moved in recent months to a safer location in another region.

CAMEROON (August 14, 2018) – Due to the spread of horrific violence and the near outbreak of civil war here, Covenant missionaries who were working in the northwest section of the country have moved in recent months to a safer location in another region.

Three couples remain in Cameroon and another has applied to serve there. One missionary couple is on home assignment and uncertain whether they will return. We are not identifying missionaries by name due to safety concerns.

The Covenant has worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators at a school in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, which is located in a Francophone area. The school educates children in grades seven through 12.

The country is divided into two major sections—Francophone and Anglophone (French- and English-speaking, respectively). The Anglophones are primarily located in a small northwest section of the country. English-speaking separatists hope to form a new country called Ambazonia.

The language differences date back to the period after World War I, when France and England held territory taken from Germany. The different regions were federated into a single bilingual nation in 1961. English speakers are outnumbered five to one and have long felt discriminated against.

A Wycliffe official recently told an interviewer that 400 translators in the area of conflict had been displaced and several were killed. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that more than 15,000 people have been displaced in the country since December last year. An additional 20,000 to 50,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Nigeria.

Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, is sub-Saharan Africa’s longest-ruling president. Elections are scheduled for October. Whether Covenant missionaries remain in the country could depend on the reaction to election results, said Deb Masten, ECC director of missionary personnel.

Longstanding tensions between the groups erupted into worsening violence after October 2016, when English-speaking judges, teachers, and others went on strike to protest systemic discrimination. The government responded with a violent crackdown. In response, English speakers formed separatist militia groups.

Since then government forces have engaged in atrocities that have included the burning of villages, as well as torture and killing of civilians. The separatists have committed brutalities as well, according to international organizations.

]]>http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/14/cameroon-violence-threatens-covenant-mission-work/feed/0Training in Colombia to Help Trauma Victimshttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/13/training-in-colombia-to-help-trauma-victims/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/13/training-in-colombia-to-help-trauma-victims/#respondMon, 13 Aug 2018 20:36:46 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40144More than 50 people from Covenant churches, social foundations, and a group of youth leaders from the “Be Peace, Make Peace” project participated in a workshop on trauma led by Elizabeth Pierre, assistant professor of pastoral care at North Park University and Theological Seminary.

MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA (August 13, 2018) – More than 50 people from Covenant churches, social foundations, and a group of youth leaders from the “Be Peace, Make Peace” project participated in a workshop on trauma led by Elizabeth Pierre, assistant professor of pastoral care at North Park University and Theological Seminary.

Pierre’s expertise is in studying how context and culture impacts trauma, as well as the role of the church in promoting healing and recovery.

For the past 60 years Colombia has been immersed in a number of armed conflicts with entities ranging from guerrilla and paramilitary groups, to narcotics dealers and criminal gangs. The violence has displaced more than six million people.

“The discussion was rich and painful at times as people shared the different experiences of trauma they themselves or their communities have experienced,” Covenant missionary Katie Isaza wrote on her blog. “There is much need of God’s healing and for the church to accompany and support victims of trauma. We need to be witnesses to their pain and healing. We need to be able to join them in their lament. We know that this conversation is just the beginning of what will need to be a continual conversation in equipping people to walk alongside victims of trauma in Colombia.”

In Bogota, more than 40 women from around the country gathered for four days to be trained in advocating for victims of abuse and other trauma. The gathering was part of a national initiative of the Colombian Covenant Women’s Ministry, which is using AVA (Advocacy for Victims of Abuse) training material. The material was developed by Women Ministries of the ECC and is being taught in Colombia by teachers from CHET, the Covenant’s Hispanic Center for Theological Studies in Compton, California.

The Big Q

What funny or endearing comments have you overheard in Sunday school?

August 13, 2018

I was team teaching second-grade Sunday school. Another teacher asked the class, “Does anyone know what Lent is?” A quiet boy who rarely participated raised his hand excitedly. “Lent is the stuff you find in your belly button!”

Karl Peterson
Excelsior, Minnesota

One of our ministry leaders was teaching an object lesson on Jesus’s first miracle of turning water into wine. First, the kids drank plain clear water, then we added flavoring through the “power” of a blender. They exclaimed, “We’re drinking wine in Sunday school!”

Brad Johnson
Grand Forks, North Dakota

We were reading from the Bible in Sunday-school class, and we talked about the fact that Moses wrote parts of the Old Testament. Katie looked at the printing in her Bible and said, “And he wrote very small.”

Another Sunday I was singing with my two- and three-year-old class. We sang “The B.I.B.L.E.” and I asked, “What does that spell?” To which one of my students yelled, “Pizza!”

Debi Cachu
Los Angeles, California

I asked my son what they talked about in Sunday school and he answered, “The 10 Duel Commandments. First they were words, then they wrote a song about them!”

Anne Booker
Mount Vernon, Washington

I was teaching about communion and told the kids that it is also known as Eucharist. A third-grade girl raised her hand and asked, “Does that have something to do with a uterus?”

Danny Fitelson
Oakland, California

Years ago, when one of my little nephews heard the story of the crucifixion, he got very agitated and asked, “Are the bad guys in jail now?”

Pam Thom

My two-year-old informed me that Jesus died on the cross—and fell off and bonked his head!

Naomi Sands
Brandon, Minnesota

When I taught second- and third-grade Sunday school I created a simplified seder meal on Palm Sunday so I could explain what would be happening in church on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services so that they wouldn’t get scared of the darkness, etc. I had white grape juice for the wine (in case any got spilled so it wouldn’t stain purple), radish slices for the bitters, chopped apples, honey, and cinnamon for the haroset, matzah, etc.

I explained that two of the elements—the wine and the unleavened bread—were what Jesus used to tell his disciples what was going to happen to him and that we use these elements in our communion service as we remember Jesus and his crucifixion.

The kids really liked the story and the food (except for the radishes). A few weeks later one of the little boys came up to me and said, “Today we are having communion, and Dad said I could take it because I know more about it than he does!” That made my day.

Jim Ressegieu
LaVista, Nebraska

I was teaching the children to sing “Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true.” I asked, “Who knows what a sanctuary is?” One child told me it’s a place where they keep dead people.

CHICAGO, IL (August 10, 2018) – Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos that Covenant News Service believes may be of interest to others. Each Friday we post five of them. Following is a sample of those submissions—their inclusion does not represent an endorsement by the Covenant of any views expressed.

Sara Wilson helped promote “lifestyle” brands but asks whether the focus on wellness reveals a sickness in our souls. She notes, for example, Gwyneth Paltrow’s controversial website, Goop, which features products that range from luxury skin-care products to a recipe for spirit truffles made with moon pantry spirit dust and “feeds harmony and extrasensory perception through pineal gland de-calcification and activation.”

From the article: “At some point in recent history, we decided to use ‘because it makes me feel good’ as a key metric by which we determine truth. Truth has become, in essence, anything that makes us feel good about ourselves. That shift created the perfect conditions for the wellness industrial complex to flourish. … Wellness has in many ways become our new religion, with practitioners, instructors, and coaches its priests, imams, and rabbis. The above photo is a screen shot from a video in which Paltrow shares her nighttime routine with Goop products that will set you back only $602.

Theological differences among movements can readily been seen by looking at their hymnals. For example, the Nazarene hymnal has far more hymns that focus on the blood of Jesus while the Covenant hymnal has far more that focused on friendship with God. The mention of “readers” in the article is a good one. When we read hymns rather than sing them in church, many of us who had sung them for years commented, “I had never noticed that in there before.”

From the article: “Hymnbooks helped to bind the people of God together. Because “readers can be both individual and corporate,” writes Phillips, hymnbooks in worship nurtured the “achievement of corporate personhood.” For new religious groups or fringe groups (the ones Phillips examines are African Methodists, Reform Jews, and Latter-day Saints), hymnbooks were one of the first acts of creating a visible identity. For denominations, too, hymnbooks were used to wage war or create peace by what was included, what was excluded, and how the books were published and circulated.”

Hymns and songs have long been employed to express solidarity among protest movements or to declare unabashed support for nations. The political divide in the country can be heard newly adapted and written hymns. “When Jesus Went to Egypt,” written to the tune of “O Sacred Head Now Wounded” protests immigration policy. “Make America Great Again,” written by the former music minister at First Baptist Dallas was played at a July 4 event in Washington’s Kennedy Center and included a speech by President Donald Trump. The author says it is written in the same vein as “God Bless America,” which is included in many hymnals. Most of the article focuses on new songs of protest.

From the article: “Musicians and scholars who focus on sacred music have noticed how it’s increasingly in the air, from public parks to courthouse steps, as part of a soundtrack for today’s social movements. And they’re eager to understand what’s happening. In July, the Hymn Society’s annual meeting focused on ‘Sacred Song and the Public Square.’ In September, Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., plans to host a conference on ‘how worship embodies and shapes us for justice.’”

We all practice denial at some level but “denialism” is a much more profound and potentially catastrophic reality in our culture.

From the article: “Denialism has moved from the fringes to the centre of public discourse, helped in part by new technology. As information becomes freer to access online, as ‘research”’has been opened to anyone with a web browser, as previously marginal voices climb on to the online soapbox, so the opportunities for countering accepted truths multiply. No one can be entirely ostracised, marginalised and dismissed as a crank anymore. The sheer profusion of voices, the plurality of opinions, the cacophony of the controversy, are enough to make anyone doubt what they should believe.

Millions of Sudanese have been forced to flee to refugee camps since the civil war broke out.

ETHIOPIA (August 9, 2018) – Mathew Jock Moses, president of the Evangelical Covenant Church of South Sudan and Ethiopia, said he is cautiously optimistic about a new peace agreement to settle the nearly five-year-old civil war that has killed tens of thousands and driven millions of people from their homes in South Sudan.

The agreement among warring parties was reached on Monday in Khartoum, Sudan, calls for power-sharing. Salva Kiir will remain president. Former vice president and rebel leader Riek Machar will serve as one of five vice presidents.

There have been several previous agreements, but they were broken within months and hours of signing. Earlier this week, Machar returned from South Africa, where he had been held on house arrest. Today, Kiir granted amnesty to Machar and other opposition forces.

Mathew said that despite the positive signs, there is reason to be wary as well as hopeful.

“The President is known for violating many peace accords and there is no permanent truth on him to respect and commit to his words though he pledged to honor it,” Mathew wrote in an email. “However, the people of South Sudan in all corners are desperate to get peace NOW rather than later due to overwhelming sufferings which challenge the people of South Sudan in all corners.”

During the civil war, the ECCSSE, which had set up its offices in Malakal, South Sudan, was forced to flee to Ethiopia. Members of the church, including relatives of Mathew and Covenant missionary James Tang, have been among those killed.

The bloody civil war erupted in December 2013 after Kiir accused Machar of plotting to overthrow the government. The conflict has fallen largely along ethnic lines. Kiir is Dinka, and Machar is Nuer. Most members of the ECCSSE are Nuer.

With assistance from Covenant World Relief, The ECCSSE has implemented training programs called Peace Reconciliation and Healing. So far, more than 4,000 South Sudanese from more than 20 tribes have been trained to be ambassadors for peace. The church also has implemented job training programs, helped feed other refugees, and provided schooling as well as assistance for people with disabilities. See “Grace in a Time of Bloodshed” for more on Mathew and the work of the ECCSSE

Mathew thanked Covenanters for the support they have received “in the midst of the agony.”

South Sudan won its independence from Sudan in 2011, but the civil war has ravaged the economy of the country, already one of the world’s poorest.

]]>http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/09/eccsee-leader-cautiously-optimistic-about-peace-plan/feed/0Next Embrace Webinar: Bill Hensonhttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/09/next-embrace-webinar-bill-henson/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/09/next-embrace-webinar-bill-henson/#respondThu, 09 Aug 2018 14:44:40 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40090Henson is founder and president of Lead Them Home [...]

CHICAGO, IL (August 6, 2018) – The next Embrace webinar will be a conversation with Bill Henson about his fully updated resource, Guiding Families of LBGT+ Loved Ones: Second Edition.

The webinar will be held Tuesday, August 14, from noon to 1 p.m. (CDT).

Henson is founder and president of Lead Them Home and the creator of the nationally leading Posture Shift Seminar. He has trained more than 50,000 Christian leaders and has guided 4,000 families over the last decade.

The webinar will be facilitated by Tim Ciccone, Director of Youth Ministry for the Evangelical Covenant Church

Embrace is a suite of human sexuality discipleship resources and experiences in harmony with the ECC’s adopted position, the center of which is “Faithfulness in heterosexual marriage, celibacy in singleness.”

]]>http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/09/next-embrace-webinar-bill-henson/feed/0Justice-themed T-Shirts Designed by CHIC Teens on Salehttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/09/justice-themed-t-shirts-designed-by-chic-teens-on-sale/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/09/justice-themed-t-shirts-designed-by-chic-teens-on-sale/#respondThu, 09 Aug 2018 14:38:25 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40087CHICAGO, IL (August 8, 2018) – T-shirts sporting award-winning designs created by teenagers at the recent CHIC youth conference are now available for sale. Students at CHIC were asked to help tell a “better story about our world, particularly folks [...]

CHICAGO, IL (August 8, 2018) – T-shirts sporting award-winning designs created by teenagers at the recent CHIC youth conference are now available for sale.

Students at CHIC were asked to help tell a “better story about our world, particularly folks who experience life on the margins.” Proceeds from the shirt sales will go directly to mercy and justice ministry in and through the Covenant.

“These winning shirts represent a small percentage of the incredibly thoughtful and creative entries from the Love Mercy Do Justice basecamp,” said Cecilia Williams, executive minister of Love Mercy Do Justice.

Shirts are for sale through September 23, after which they will be printed and shipped directly to people who ordered them.

The shirts are being sold through Fleurish Enterprises, a social enterprise led by members of Canal Street Church in New Orleans.

A social enterprise is a business that seeks to generate self-sustaining revenue while also addressing a community concern. Fleurish is creating pathways for youth and people who were formerly incarcerated to develop skills, find employment and a lifelong vocation.

]]>http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/09/justice-themed-t-shirts-designed-by-chic-teens-on-sale/feed/0The Returning Oneshttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/08/the-returning-ones/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/08/the-returning-ones/#commentsWed, 08 Aug 2018 12:00:26 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40067The book called out to me. That’s all I can say. I’d heard about it in passing, then one day I saw it on my colleague’s desk. Perhaps it was the phrase “I’m perfect” that was scribbled out and re-written “The Imperfect Pastor,” that struck me. But I still didn’t read it. Several years later, it sat languishing on my nightstand until I finally had enough wisdom (or desperation) to pick it up.

Stories that Shaped my Faith

The Returning Ones

by Melissa lee emerson | August 8, 2018

The book called out to me. That’s all I can say. I’d heard about it in passing, then one day I saw it on my colleague’s desk. Perhaps it was the phrase “I’m perfect” that was scribbled out and re-written “The Imperfect Pastor,” that struck me. But I still didn’t read it. Several years later, it sat languishing on my nightstand until I finally had enough wisdom (or desperation) to pick it up.

What made me desperate? I had returned home. After five years of being away from my hometown and home church, I had returned to the place of my roots—the city where I grew up, where I first heard the call to follow Jesus, where I rolled up my sleeves with giddy excitement to share in the kingdom work of transforming a diverse people into a united people.

It has not been an easy road. Church revitalization ministry is hard. I think it might be just a tad harder for recovering perfectionists (shout-out to all my Enneagram #1 sojourners!). In a season swarming with temptations to carry too much on my shoulders, to doubt the call, to forfeit my joy, to rush the slow work it takes to build a church, to fix everything and just make it right—it became clear that God wanted to grab my attention with this book and invite me to contend with the words of wisdom that saturated each page.

Chapter by chapter, my soul swayed to a cadence between conviction and grace, with healing words washing over me, cleansing my wounds. I’m so grateful that author and pastor Zack Eswine was willing to invite other pastors into his office, where he learned how to recover his humanity as a pastor, to serve in obscurity, to fight the temptations to be everywhere for all and to fix it all immediately. I’m grateful for his invitation to reshape our inner life and reshape the work we do, to go back to the basics of “discovering joy in our limitations through a daily apprenticeship with Jesus.”

But the chapter that made my soul come alive focused on pastors as shepherds, or as he put it, “the returning ones.” In this chapter, Eswine invites us to place ourselves in the story of the Christmas shepherds who are the experts in “dealing with anticlimax.”

He writes, “Ancient promises are fulfilled. Fear seizes these sheep men. Good tidings are spoken to them. They are told that the Savior is born and there will be a sign to confirm it. To see and hear angels was spectacular already. Imagine how spectacular the Messiah’s sign would be! Perhaps God would reach down his hand and create a new planet…right before their very eyes! But here the anticlimax begins. No planets were formed. The sign of God’s fame lay in the aroma of cattle and hay, the placenta of new birth, the cries and warmth of ordinary life. Then after beholding and participating in this too-grand-for-words event, the shepherds returned (Luke 2:20). After beholding the glory, the shepherds went home.”

As I flew through these pages, the conviction came. The temptation I was warned against, the temptation I was so sure I would overcome, had walked through my front door and sat in my living room, and I pretended it wasn’t there. In the secret chambers of my heart, I thought that if God had called me home, he would create a new planet (or church) before my very eyes. I would stand witness to his too-grand-for-words church revitalization (after all, I did take a class on this!). I thought that with God on my side, I could “show them all” that I could be an effective minority woman pastor. I would show them I had what it takes. I would make the women who went before me and came alongside me proud. I would be perfect.

Well, shoot. I did it again. I left the voice of perfectionism unchecked and it got me.

Well, shoot. I did it again. I left the voice of perfectionism unchecked and it got me. In truth, I’ve come home to the ordinary life of a shepherd. Like Eswine, I’ve felt the complaint in my body and soul that accompanies this labor. I’ve felt discouraged by people’s questions about why I came back. I’ve felt the exhaustion of being asked to keep my eyes and ears open when others in my community are more closed.

But then this chapter became a banqueting table, the quiet waters and green pastures with these words: “But right here, God in his grace disrupts us. By means of the shepherds returning, God seems to seriously imply that seeing God’s glory, hearing his voice, receiving his good news, and beholding his love was never meant to deliver us from ordinary life and love in a place—it was meant to provide the means to preserve us there.”

Yes, we return to the seemingly “same old, same old,” but I am a changed woman. I’ve been called and empowered to dwell here and savor where God has brought me thus far. I’m called to let “worship, hope, and testimony refuse to quit.” Sometimes God does call us away, but sometimes God calls us to return and to stay—no matter what occupation we hold.

So as Zack Eswine pastors us, I leave you with his question: “What does it mean for us if the future and the hope that God has for our welfare means that we will have to trust him right where we are?”

About the Author

Melissa Lee Emerson is a bivocational pastor in Sugar Land, Texas. She serves as associate minister of family care at Mosaic Community Covenant Church and as program manager of Loving Houston, a nonprofit organization that seeks to help churches serve local schools. She graduated from North Park Theological Seminary in 2015 and is happy to have returned to Houston with her husband, Anthony, and her puppy.

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, MN (August 7, 2018) – The Evangelical Covenant Church hosted motorcyclists from the United States and Canada who gathered here for the recent Christian Motorcycle Association’s No Borders Rally 2018.

The association has hosted its annual gatherings in different communities. The church first hosted the No Borders Rally four years ago after a member of the congregation suggested it to the CMA’s leadership.

“The new director, Jim Hall, a member of the Stillwater Covenant Church, remembered us from four years ago and asked if we would be willing to let them do it again, and of course we did,” said Pastor Darren Olson.

“They are an awesome group of people who are committed to blessing the community and sharing Jesus Christ,” Olson said. While in town, the group conducted a youth evangelistic outreach and participated in other activities to benefit the community.

“Hosting the event helps us be an active presence in the community and builds positive connections with the community,” Olson said. “That’s something that we as a church have worked really hard at becoming.”

]]>http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/07/church-hosts-motorcyclists-no-borders-gathering/feed/0Church Spotlight: It Takes a Villagehttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/06/church-spotlight-it-takes-a-village/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/06/church-spotlight-it-takes-a-village/#respondMon, 06 Aug 2018 12:00:28 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40041Eight years ago John Kareithi was serving as pastor of an independent Swahili-speaking church in Columbus, Ohio, when he heard about the Covenant. The denomination seemed a good fit, and he was excited to bring Revival Church into the ECC in 2010. Revival is a mostly African church with members from DR Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Kareithi immigrated to the US from Kenya in 2001.

Eight years ago John Kareithi was serving as pastor of an independent Swahili-speaking church in Columbus, Ohio, when he heard about the Covenant. The denomination seemed a good fit, and he was excited to bring Revival Church into the ECC in 2010. Revival is a mostly African church with members from DR Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Kareithi immigrated to the US from Kenya in 2001.

Last winter Revival found a building that would better suit their needs than their current location. They began praying and started negotiations to purchase the property. With the help of National Covenant Properties and the sale of their building, the small church put together 75 percent of the purchase price. They still needed to raise $82,500.

As the church prayed, they began to see responses. First, a generous donor put up half of the remaining amount through a matching gift. Faith Covenant Church in nearby Westerville took up a special offering. Revival was able to raise $42,500 within a couple of months, but they were still short $40,000. They had a closing date set in late April, and it was fast approaching.

On April 15 Revival hosted a “harambe” service, which means “all pulling together” in Swahili. In the spirited worship service the congregation brought contributions forward and presented them one by one. “It was especially remarkable to see children, youth, and single mothers bring their donations forward,” says Tim Heintzelman, pastor of Faith Covenant. The service brought in more than $20,000. But with only one week to go, Revival was short a seemingly insurmountable $20,000. “As I was driving back from the church, it was as if God grabbed my heartstrings,” says Heintzelman. “I thought, ‘God you own the cattle on a thousand hills. What are we going to do here?’”

So he began sharing the need with other pastors and churches around the conference. He returned to his own congregation to ask for more help.Wally Coots, pastor of Christ Community Church, a Covenant congregation in Allegan, Michigan, joined the effort. And the money was raised.

For Kareithi the generosity from around the conference was deeply meaningful. “We have been serving in the Covenant community for a long time,” he says, “and we felt for the first time that we belong to a bigger, loving family. They are helping us, taking care of us. We are not alone!”

Revival Covenant Church celebrated its first service in their new building on May 6.

Revival Covenant Church

]]>http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/06/church-spotlight-it-takes-a-village/feed/0Five for Friday: Graphic Novels, Realistic Nerf Blasters, Dog Rescuehttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/03/five-for-friday-graphic-novels-realistic-nerf-blasters-dog-rescue/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/03/five-for-friday-graphic-novels-realistic-nerf-blasters-dog-rescue/#respondFri, 03 Aug 2018 19:17:46 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40059CHICAGO, IL (August 3, 2018) – Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos that Covenant News Service believes may be of interest to others. Each Friday we post five of them. Following is a sample of those [...]

CHICAGO, IL (August 3, 2018) – Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos that Covenant News Service believes may be of interest to others. Each Friday we post five of them. Following is a sample of those submissions—their inclusion does not represent an endorsement by the Covenant of any views expressed.

Graphic novels are being considered for prestigious prizes as people increasingly view them as serious literature. The Think Christian website suggests five top titles, with summary of their theological themes and content.

From the article: “From facial expressions to maps and narration to speech bubbles, image and word combine to uniquely capture not only the brokenness of the world, but also the ways that grace shines through that brokenness.”

The headline is a tad sensational, but the people who once worshiped in these former churches would likely be stunned by how they are being used now. The story is accompanied by striking photography.

From the article: “The radical makeovers of Quebec churches reflect the drastic decline of the Catholic Church in a majority-Catholic Canadian province, where 95 percent of the population went to Mass in the 1950s but only 5 percent do so today. The sharp drop in church attendance, coupled with spiraling maintenance costs, has made heritage groups, architects, and the church itself think creatively to conserve historic buildings at risk of being shuttered or demolished.”

You might not have known the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, but you almost certainly have seen news coverage of their hate-filled protests in the name of God. Recent changes have led the church to slightly change their messaging, but the message remains largely the same.

From the article: “There has also been a subtle shift in Westboro Baptist’s messaging. Many new signs inject ideas about Jesus and love, clarify doctrine, diversify the sins to be protested, and invoke more positive language. Likely in response to past criticism that their protests were not biblical, the new signs always include a biblical citation. Church members have also reduced the visibility of their famously succinct insults.”

Elliott Woods is a former soldier turned war correspondent who looks at the trend of ever-more sophisticated and realism of Nerf blasters, and the way some gun owners are decorating their guns. Despite how he begins the article, you might be surprised at his conclusion.

From the article: “The company’s Modulus series includes a lineup of accessories that are obviously toy versions of the real add-ons beloved by black-rifle enthusiasts, including foregrips that mount under barrels, faux laser sights, collapsible stocks, and long-range barrel extenders. Certain battery-operated models are even capable of automatic fire, and some kids have figured out how to ‘bump fire’ their nonautomatic models the same way you can bump fire a semiautomatic rifle: by hooking your finger around the trigger and moving the entire rifle back and forth.”

We’ve all heard about fire departments rescuing cats, but saving dogs on roofs has to be unusual.

From the article: “Crews say the homeowners, who live in a duplex in the 1400 block of South Elgin’s Exeter Lane, weren’t home when the dog made its move. They say the animal broke through a window screen on the building’s second floor, then made its way over to the neighbor’s side of the roof. Firefighters say the dog wasn’t able to get back to the window it came out of because the roof was steep. They safely managed to get it down using a ladder.”

]]>http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/03/five-for-friday-graphic-novels-realistic-nerf-blasters-dog-rescue/feed/0Covenant Minister Barely Escapes Firehttp://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/03/covenant-minister-barely-escapes-fire/
http://covenantcompanion.com/2018/08/03/covenant-minister-barely-escapes-fire/#respondFri, 03 Aug 2018 18:24:26 +0000http://covenantcompanion.com/?p=40052Covenant minister Bea Radakovich said today she is grateful that she and her dog are alive after narrowly escaping a fire.

Bea Radakovich’s kitchen was destroyed in the fire. The rest of the apartment suffered extensive smoke damage.

CHICAGO, IL (August 3, 2018) – Covenant minister Bea Radakovich said today she is grateful that she and her dog are alive after narrowly escaping a fire that heavily damaged her fourth-floor apartment and the rest of the building Wednesday afternoon.

Radakovich had gone home early from her job as director of admissions at North Park Theological Seminary because she was feeling ill and had just lain down on the couch to take a nap around 2:30 p.m. when a smoke detector went off.

When she went into her hallway, there already was a trail of smoke moving along the ceiling. Radakovich ran to her kitchen, which opens to an exterior wooden back stairway but flames had already overwhelmed it.

“That fire was raging,” Radakovich said.

She grabbed her dog and escaped through an interior stairway that was starting to fill with smoke. The windows already had started popping.

Firefighters told Radakovich that the fire started in a lower-level apartment’s kitchen due to an aerosol can most likely being too close to a flame. The fire had consumed the back stairwell within a minute or two because workers that day had started waterproofing it, “so there was a lot of flammable stuff laying around.”

Radakovich said that had she not come home early, her dog probably would have died in the fire.

The building has roughly 10 one-bedroom units with about 15 tenants, Radakovich said. Although all the apartments were damaged, everyone and their pets made it out.

Bea Radakovich

Radakovich and several other neighbors sat on the curb across from the building and watched firefighters battle the blaze for three hours before it was extinguished, she said. Radakovich is living temporarily in the seminary visitors’ apartment.

All of Radakovich’s belongings were destroyed, and she didn’t have renter’s insurance, so friends and family have started a Gofundme page.

Radakovich said the experience has made her even more grateful for family and friends and has welcomed the outpouring of support.

She also encouraged everyone to make sure their smoke detectors work. One saved her life, she said.